The Third Party
by Atana
Summary: What do Severus Snape and Martis Vox get when they combine a heated Quidditch match, possible romance, and jealousy?


DISCLAIMER: Gods, I write too must teen angst. Must be That Time. . Where's my chocolate??  
  
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Snips and Spirals Fanfic:

"The Third-Party"

Text by Lady Tesser

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The Slytherin-Ravenclaw Quidditch Match was coming up soon in mid-January.  
  
It had been rather lonely that first week when the new semester started and Severus Snape, Fourth-Year (aged fifteen), had to study in the library by himself. It was always like this just before a major game, when Britomartis Vox, Second Year (aged thirteen), would practice in the mornings before breakfast and after classes up until dinner.  
  
Even then she came into both meals late, grabbing only a bite before it was time to leave. Lunch was practically nonexistant, as she spent that time doing homework. Consequently, her time not spent in classes, sleep, or practice was spent in schoolwork, and they had spoken little to each other all that time.  
  
Yes, very lonely. But one of his fellow Potions students - Sonia Stellamaris - was starting to study with him in the library after classes.  
  
Sev thought her to be one of the most beautiful girls in the school - champagne blonde hair, delicately pale, long aristocratic fingers, vivid blue eyes, a slender neck, and a gorgeous cupid's bow mouth - and she was in his Potions class. And a Ravenclaw.  
  
The Marauders - individually - always managed to summon up enough courage to ask her to be their lab partner, but she always declined. Sev never had enough guts to ask her. She usually partnered with Artemisia Vox, since they were roommates (and besides the fact Artemisia was much better at potions than her twin Adonia, who had recently made a monster composed of butterscotch from a cooling salve). But beautiful Sonia Stellamaris - partnering with him for study?? One would never consider it.  
  
But she had. 'Oh, Severus, you're the best student in all of Potions - could you help me with my notes and see if I'm understanding the subject correctly?'  
  
A gorgeous, witty Ravenclaw girl asking Greasy Git Snivellus for help with her potions work? Of course!  
  
The two weeks before the Quidditch game had Sev and Sonia studying in the library between classes and before dinner, their heads bent close over their notebooks, quills in hand as they worked out formulae and problems. Sonia even partnered with him once during a particularly difficult lab involving a 'Silver Tongue Potion' to help vocalize thoughts into elegant speech.  
  
Meanwhile, Snips and Spirals were drifting apart ...  
  
----------  
  
Martis had a worry. This would be the first official game between Slytherin and Ravenclaw, and she worried over how to handle playing against her elder sister.  
  
"But didn't you ever play on opposite teams?" Slytherin Captain Onslow Daizer asked her during a break in practice.  
  
"Somewhat. Usually it's everyone against the bull."  
  
Onslow rolled his eyes, brushing his thick dark blonde hair back. "Spirals, you can't be polite to the other team out there just 'cause your sister's on it. We're Slytherins - everyone's equally-punished on the field. Besides, it wouldn't be good sporting to play favorites."  
  
"I know that, Onslow," Martis snapped. "I'm just wondering if I should drop out of this game - "  
  
"You do, and I will take you over my knee and spank you."  
  
She smirked. "Not my type, Captain-sir."  
  
"You're not mine, either, unless you grow a pair of big'uns - URGH!"  
  
She removed her fingers from his solar plexus. "ANYWAY ... If I'm going to play, then I need to talk to my sister about it. Is that all right?"  
  
"Sure," Onslow gasped, clutching his torso.  
  
----------  
  
The four Vox sisters managed to find time between morning classes the day before the game to sit in the Great Hall and have tea together to warm up.  
  
"So, what should I do, Phaedra?"  
  
The eldest sister at the school swallowed her tea. "I'd say we treat each other like any other player on opposite teams. I don't want to sit this game out and neither do you."  
  
"True," Martis agreed. "But there's a difference between British sportsmanship and Cretan sportsmanship."  
  
"We have no choice," Adonia commented. "It's either jump the bull or toss each other in front of it while we run away." She chewed on a biscuit and made a face. "Yuck. Cookies here taste like cardboard."  
  
Artemisia said, "Martis, it's really up to you to decide if you're comfortable hitting a Bludger at Phaedra or not."  
  
"But I'm not comfortable with it."  
  
"Then she'll have to make you mad." Artemisia glanced at Adonia who nodded. "Phaedra, tell Baby Sister."  
  
Phaedra ran her hand over her head, clutching a fistful of frizzy black hair. She released it and said, "Britomartis, the Tease of Ravenclaw is moving in on your man."  
  
Martis looked up sharply at her. "I beg your pardon?"  
  
"According to witnesses, Sonia Stellamaris has been sighted with Severus in the same places you two studied together."  
  
"Who's Sonia Stellamaris?" Martis asked.  
  
Phaedra sighed. "She's a Fourth-Year in our House. Blonde, pale, blue- eyed. Considered one of the prettiest girls in Ravenclaw, for a British girl. She has Potions with the twins and Snape. She's been moving in on him while you were practicing."  
  
Martis stared at Phaedra, then snorted a laugh. "Oh, you were joking. For a moment there, I actually believed you."  
  
"What?" Artemisia said. "What do you mean by that?"  
  
"No other girls like Snips except us, and the only reason you do is because he's my friend." Martis smiled ruefully. "He's pointed this out to me many times. Nice try, but the premise is too ridiculous for me to get mad about."  
  
"Even if it were true?" Adonia asked. "I saw them making a Silver Tongue Potion together in class - she was all over him!"  
  
Artemisia snorted. "Don't exaggerate, Doni. She's only all over him while they study."  
  
"See what I mean?" Adonia pointed out. "And he won't say no, especially since she bears a passing resemblence to you. URK!"  
  
Martis had gripped her sister's throat. "There is NOTHING going on between us! I wish people would get that through their thick skulls!"  
  
"If there isn't," Artemisia said quietly. "Then why are you getting mad about it?"  
  
Martis released Adonia and replied, "Gee, I don't know - maybe because I wish there was?? The fact that this past winter holiday made me decide I'm not ready to try anything even though my body wants otherwise??"  
  
"Join the party," Artemisia stated. "Welcome to being a hormonal teenager."  
  
"I HATE IT! First minute I'm talking with him like any other friend, the next I'm making innuendoes and making him blush! And considering all the crap he's gone through, I don't need to complicate his life with my hormones and become yet another problem for him!"  
  
Phaedra made motions of calming. "Quiet down, sis. Is it That Time?"  
  
Martis nodded miserably, sitting back down in her seat.  
  
"Better take your stuff, then," Adonia added. "And for the Great Mother's sake, watch out for that blonde bimbo - Snape's going to slip and kill himself on her."  
  
"He won't," Martis murmured. "He's his own person. It's not like I've claimed him, or that I'm his keeper." She looked up at them. "Would he?"  
  
"He's a teenage boy. What do you think?" Phaedra answered.  
  
Martis really had no idea what to think.  
  
----------  
  
The mid-January Saturday game for Slytherin and Ravenclaw had a light snowfall that morning, blanketing the pitch in smooth whiteness. The sun peeked from behind clouds, making the snow glitter in the winter sunlight.  
  
The Slytherin team flew out of their prep room, Seeker Thomas St. Claire in the lead and waving around his lucky hair-pick before shoving it back in his Afro, all to the screams of the Slytherin girls.  
  
Wolf-whistles and howls followed the movements of Beater Britomartis Vox as she sped around the pitch in time with her joint-Beater Markham Dearling. They cracked their bats together before separating, their green robes fluttering in opposite directions.  
  
Keeper Fearghus Flynn wove his way around the hoops at his end of the pitch. Looking more like a redheaded bear than a human, Fearghus could block an entire hoop if need be. His girlfriend, Greta Blustrode, was indeed woman enough for him, being comparable to a bear herself.  
  
The Chasers - Keith and Ryan Woot, Jonas Kennebunk, and team captain Onslow Daizer - zipped around the pitch to the cheers of their House.  
  
The Ravenclaw team flew out of their prep room - their blue robes waving like flags in their flight. Phaedra Vox lead the Chasers out while team captain and Chaser Monsoor Patil performed a spiral flight path, smiling widely at the audience. Ravenclaw's Seeker - Johnny Jensen - stood up on his broom and pulled a few gymnastic moves before the crowd.  
  
"Show off, eh?" St. Claire commented.  
  
"And you're not?" Martis asked him as she swooped by.  
  
He grinned, his teeth bright white against his plum black skin. "I do it with style, Spirals."  
  
She saluted him with her bat and spun around, searching the Slytherin stands for her sisters and Sev ... and realized they were not there.  
  
She hurried across the stadium to Ravenclaw's stands, searching the crowd for the twins' long blonde hair and Sev's greasy black, hoping they simply dragged him back to their homestands.  
  
The twins were sitting on a top bleacher, looking very worried. They pointed to their lower left and Martis followed where their fingers pointed -  
  
Sev sitting several rows away from them in the Ravenclaw stand, next to a demure pale blonde girl. Their heads were bent close, not even paying attention to what was going on on the pitch.  
  
Martis felt her entire body freeze, making the pounding of her heart fill her ears when it was not skipping beats. She felt a lead weight solidify in her torso, squeezing her heart and stomach at once.  
  
After a moment, she finally found her voice, "HEY, SNIPS!"  
  
He did not seem to hear her. The time for the game to start was getting closer.  
  
"SNAPE!" she yelled.  
  
Still no acknowledgement of her existance; a couple of the older Ravenclaws tapped him to get his attention, but Sev swatted their hands away.  
  
Martis' blood boiled, making the noise in her ears turn to a roar. She swallowed angry tears and snarled, "So be it!"  
  
She twirled her broom around and dove down to the pitch, getting into position for the start of the game. Her teammates nobly ignored the tears streaming from under her sunglasses.  
  
----------  
  
The game between Slytherin and Ravenclaw was brutal. It became comparable to the brutality of the last Slytherin game against Gryffindor, except now the Vox sisters were making sure the other earned her goal or victory.  
  
Phaedra was one of Ravenclaw's top Chasers. There was talk of making her captain next year when Monsoor graduated, her strategic mind paralleling Monsoor's in both audacity and logic.  
  
Martis had logic and audacity, but her position of Beater applied these traits in the other areas of force and simple cold-blooded playing. It was obvious she was in a Mood, for her focus on the game made chills run down the spines of several players on both sides.  
  
And as the game progressed, she became even more violent.  
  
Phaedra became the only Chaser that would dare risk crossing her path, able to dodge the Bludgers. Ravenclaw's Chasers began to rely more on sneak goals, diving down to the pitch and up alongside the goal hoops to score. The Ravenclaw Beaters were also getting a workout with trying to block Martis' Bludger hits.  
  
Several students in the stands held prayer-chains for the new Bludgers to not shatter whenever she hit them.  
  
All the while, Sev's eyes did not leave Sonia Stellamaris.  
  
"Time to end this," St. Claire announced. "Cover me."  
  
"Right," Martis answered. She whipped around on her broom, grabbing the attention of a Bludger. As St. Claire zoomed off, Johnny Jensen of Ravenclaw sped after him as the Seekers chased down the Snitch.  
  
Martis slammed her bat into the Bludger and trajectory sent it toward a point that would impact Jensen.  
  
A Ravenclaw Beater swooped in and hit the Bludger back to her.  
  
Martis spiraled upward, allowing the Bludger to chase her, before she sent it in a backhand hit - into the crowd.  
  
Specifically, the Ravenclaw bleachers and at a point that would have turned Sonia's head into strawberry jam if the wards were not up to protect the audience from stray Bludger hits.  
  
"Penalty to Slytherin!" Madame Hooch yelled.  
  
"Oops," Martis called. "Sorry!" She gave Sev and Sonia one more glance to see if they even noticed ...  
  
Sonia was holding his hand, and he was grinning like an idiot.  
  
Martis was aware of her teeth hurting from grinding them together. She was not aware of the yell she gave as she slammed her bat into the returning Bludger, cracking the magically-reinforced wood down the middle and denting the Bludger.  
  
Everybody else was aware of it, though, since the explosive impact was louder than the crowd. They were also aware of the Bludger, since it slammed into the middle goalpost and smashed through it, missing the Ravenclaw Keeper's head by perhaps a few inches.  
  
As the goalpost swayed and fell, no one paid any attention to the Quaffle, which had been hit by the Bludger and had sailed through the goal instants before the goal was destroyed. The only one to notice the Quaffle was the five-year-old Whomping Willow, who slammed it into the Forbidden Forest.  
  
The crowd was hushed in awe as the goalpost hit the snowy ground. The Ravenclaw Keeper was hushed because he had fainted, and as he fell off his broom, someone shouted, "SWEET GOD IN HEAVEN, SHE'S KILLED THE KEEPER!!"  
  
The referee's whistle shrieked, causing the players to hover where they were.  
  
Madame Hooch squeaked out, "Penalty to Slytherin!" as she dove down to the pitch to check on Keeper Robert Crays.  
  
Nurse Pomfrey was already running out onto the field, disturbing the perfect blanket of snow with her skirts and cloak, her medical bag in hand.  
  
"Congratulations," Onslow commented, hovering near Martis. "You've just performed one of the unwritten Seven-Hundred Quidditch Fouls."  
  
Martis leaned down on her broomstick, feeling sick. "I wasn't trying to kill anyone ... "  
  
Nurse Pomfrey said something to Madame Hooch, then Hagrid rambled out to the pitch and picked up Robert Crays, following Nurse Pomfrey. Madame Hooch blew her whistle again. "GAME ON!"  
  
"Guess he survived, how unlucky for him," Onslow remarked. "Need a new bat?"  
  
Martis looked at the cracked one in her hand. "I might. Dearling!"  
  
The other Slytherin Beater appeared. "Yeah, Miss Spirals?"  
  
"You want to cover the Seekers or should I do it?"  
  
"I can handle it." He flew off, attacking the one good and one dented Bludgers.  
  
Onslow turned back to her. "You'll have to sit this out, Vox. The game's almost over, anyway."  
  
She looked up at him. "You're - you're dismissing me?"  
  
Onslow set his jaw, making the muscles stand out. "You broke your bat, you destroyed a goalpost, you lost the Quaffle, you dented a brand-new Bludger, and you almost killed the opposing team's Keeper. Out."  
  
Martis flew down to the Slytherin prep room, her vision blurred by her tears. She was going to get kicked off of the team again. Sev found some other girl in his life. She was going to be alone ... alone, alone, alone.  
  
No one noticed her leave the prep room, abandoning her broom, cracked bat, armor, and robe on a bench.  
  
Alone again. As always. As it should be.  
  
----------  
  
Slytherin won, 190 over 60, in one of the most dramatic games yet this season. The Ravenclaw Keeper Crays did not die, but had merely fainted from fright and had some minor cuts and bruises from the exploding goalpost. Several of the Gryffindors offered to hunt down the Quaffle in the Forest, but teachers declined the offer and told Hagrid to be on the lookout for foolhardy adventurers.  
  
Madame Hooch met with the Headmaster and Professors Flitwick and Penderdandis to discuss matters pertaining to that game. Professor Flickwick made insinuations against the 'principles' of the Slytherin team, and Professor Penderdandis made insinuations about Flitwick's sexual preferences. Madame Hooch had told them to stop waving their wands at each other, while the Headmaster said nothing and smirked behind his beard.  
  
Meanwhile, Artemisia and Adonia were looking all over the castle for their Baby Sister, while Phaedra searched out Severus Snape.  
  
She found him and Sonia in the rose gardens, quietly talking. Without preamble, she grabbed Sev up by the arm and dragged him off into the school.  
  
"Hey!" Sev objected. "Stop that! What are you doing, Phaedra??"  
  
Her dark eyes bore into his own. "You did not pay one iota of attention to the game, did you, Snape?" She released his arm. "If you hadn't noticed, Martis is missing!"  
  
"What?" he asked. He rubbed his shoulders. "Where? What happened?"  
  
"I think it was between seeing you cuddling up with Sonia and when she nearly killed my team's Keeper that she snapped." Phaedra's lip curled up into a snarl. "How DARE you! The least you could have done was tell her that you were chasing after some tramp!"  
  
"What do you mean? Sonia is not a tramp! And I haven't seen Martis in weeks - she's been doing Quidditch practice."  
  
"And so on the big game day when you're supposed to be cheering on your OWN HOUSE TEAM, what do you do? Ride the Stellamaris Rails."  
  
Sev's dark brows lowered over his black eyes, his hair falling into his face. "That's no one's business, especially yours."  
  
"Well, I suggest you help us find Martis. The Great Mother alone knows where she is."  
  
"I know where she is," he said. "And I'll talk to her."  
  
"Good." Phaedra turned to leave, then paused and looked over the shoulder of her blue robe. "Incidentially, we would not be having this talk if the Bludger she hit at you both made contact. Lucky you - the wards protected your overripe pumpkin head."  
  
Sev blinked in shock. He had no idea a Bludger had almost killed him.  
  
----------  
  
Sev slowly climbed the spiral staircase to the Conversation Room. He knew she would be there - it was the only private place they could find in all of the school that NO one else would pass or barge into. As far as he knew, they were the only two people who occupied it in ages.  
  
He poked his head through the dark entry and looked around the twilight- filled room.  
  
His heart jumped into his throat - no Martis.  
  
But she had been here recently ... the air tasted of anger and sadness, verified by the broken lamp at the base of the wall and the empty chocolate wrappers on the floor.  
  
Martis was not in the Conversation Room ... she did not want to see him or talk to him or have anything to do with him.  
  
And why should she? He screwed up his first real friendship. There were a million 'if onlys' in this situation, and any of them could apply - if only he had seeked her out during the last few weeks, if only he had attended practice so she knew he gave a damn, if only he had not been so lonely during those few weeks and latched onto someone who paid attention to him, if only -  
  
Sev crawled out of the room, sitting on a step.  
  
He had to do something this time. Martis was the one who was hurting because of him.  
  
Sev got up and began to search the school.  
  
----------  
  
"Has the girl been found?" McGonagall asked quietly in the middle of the night.  
  
Penderdandis shook his head, holding the lantern in the corridor. "I've also been informed by the girl's sister that Snape went to look for her, too, and he hasn't been seen since."  
  
"Two missing students now," she sighed. "Surely they must still be in the castle. Tonight is the coldest night of the year - they would freeze out there."  
  
Penderdandis cleared his throat. "They would freeze in the castle as well; the corridors are like ice right now."  
  
"Keep looking, then."  
  
A house-elf popped into existance before them. "Professor ma'am, we saw your missing girl, we did."  
  
"Where?" McGonagall demanded.  
  
She adjusted her apron-turned-dress. "Just in the hopsital wing, professor ma'am."  
  
"That's where Robert Crays is. Thank you, Jupey."  
  
----------  
  
Robert Crays, Ravenclaw Keeper, was still poleaxed from being woken from a sound sleep by a waterfall of blonde hair and a girl's voice saying, 'I'm really sorry about this afternoon, I didn't mean to hurt you.' By the time he reached for a lamp, he found nothing but a vase of daisies where his glass of water had been.  
  
"No idea where she had gone?" McGonagall asked Pomfrey.  
  
"I was not aware she had been in here," the school nurse admitted. "Not until after the fact."  
  
The Deputy Headmistress turned to Robert. "Did she say anything else, Crays?"  
  
He shook his head. "No, ma'am."  
  
McGonagall muttered a word that he could not hear. "How is she running around like this without being seen? And where is that boy?"  
  
"Ma'am?" Crays asked.  
  
"Nothing, lad. You rest now." As McGonagall left the infirmary, she could not stop her mind from going over Severus Snape's emotional state from what she knew.  
  
He would blame himself, in the highly-dramatic and self-centered way young people did, and would be looking for Vox. And Vox, in an equally over- dramatic and self-centered fashion, would be hiding from him.  
  
So, what lent itself to drama, aloneness, and concealment?  
  
The Forest, of course.  
  
She broke into a run.  
  
-------  
  
By the time midnight passed, everyone still awake in the school had heard of what happened. The Marauders (always eager to share their opinion on the Slytherin Duo) suggested to leave them out there to be eaten alive, while the rest of their House swatted them indiscriminately to shut them up. Remus Lupin immediately volunteered to help search the forest, but all students were told to stay in their dorms and not to be heroes.  
  
"Fine by me," Sirius Black commented. "If those two nasty gits want to be killed, that's their lookout."  
  
"Your sheer callousness amazes me, Padfoot," Lupin groused.  
  
"And your willingness to risk your own neck for those two puzzles me." He leered. "Do you think Snake-Bitch will throw herself at you for rescuing her or something? Be safer just to cut your manhood off."  
  
"Oh, shut up."  
  
One of Lily's roommates, a mousy girl with glasses, sighed, "Oh, I think it's so sweet to want to be with each other so much that they would die in a Lovers' Suicide Pact in the Forbidden Forest - "  
  
The Marauders edged away from her while her roommates threw cushions at her head.  
  
Evan Ryper, Sixth-Year Slytherin Prefect, had to be forcefully restrained from forming a search party and leading it on his own. It took both Woot brothers, Onslow Daizer, and Fearghus Flynn to wrestle him down and take his wand away - even then, they were well outside the Slytherin common room by the time they could constrain him. Several of his colored-water glass bottles were broken in the process and he had to be taken to Nurse Pomfrey for some sedatives to calm him down enough to make more, especially his blue and lavender ones.  
  
The official search party consisted of Madame Hooch, Professor Sartoris, Hagrid, Professor Penderdandis, Nurse Pomfrey, Professor McGonagall, and the Headmaster, all of them armed with their wands and Pomfrey carrying her black bag and blankets.  
  
"Happens at least once a' year," Hagrid remarked. "Couple gets into a' fight, both get upset, one runs into the Forest, the other tries lookin' for 'em, and then they gets eaten."  
  
"Hagrid!" Nurse Pomfrey snapped.  
  
"Sorry," he murmured.  
  
Madame Hooch held up her wand, trying to make the light spread further around. "I blame you for this, Penderdandis."  
  
"Me??" the Slytherin House Master squawked. "Why?"  
  
"Because if you had kept a rein on them, they wouldn't be doing this!"  
  
"I beg your pardon, Madame Koochie - "  
  
Hooch snapped her wand in his face.  
  
"PROFESSOR!" McGonagall cried. "We will not have any blaming or name- calling! They are teenagers being teenagers, nothing more!"  
  
Dumbledore continued on ahead of the group, allowing McGonagall to keep Hooch and Penderdandis in check.  
  
These two students worried Albus Dumbledore the most. The Dark Child (as McGonagall had once described Severus) was as fragile as a house of cards, tumbling down into despair with every stray breath or bump. He watched Severus quietly those first few years, hoping against hope that his influence would help pull the child out of the darkness that drowned him. He had even gone as far as to threaten the boy's father ...  
  
The Light Child, Britomartis, arriving when she did was the Gods'send. She had succeeded where he had tried - pulling Severus out of the darkness and into Light. And yet she had her own darkness, artfully layered beneath sunglasses, flippancy, and carefully crafted pranks. She had to be loved and needed in return as much as Severus did, and both were able to provide the other with it through their friendship.  
  
Dumbledore was not blind to the other aspects, either. They were at that age when hormones and emotions ruled, no matter how stunted and damaged their growth, and they were going to be like any other teenagers. He had heard all the concerns expressed by every teacher they had, including their House Master and Mother and his own Deputy Headmistress. Their closeness was beginning to make the staff nervous, and most honestly, he did not want to lose either child because of Nature taking its course.  
  
He had spoken with the Vox sisters about their theories concerning their youngest sister's actions, which merely confirmed his own. Both teenagers were hurt, depressed, angry, and felt guilty.  
  
He hoped they could find those children before something awful happened.  
  
----------  
  
Martis had sat up in one of the highest trees she could find, curled in the arm of a branch and her cheek pressed against the rough bark of the tree. The winds were completely still, but the air was freezing, making the waning moon appear to have a bright ring around it. She gazed at the moon's face, naming craters she could see, identifying smaller patches of darkness around them as other craters. It kept her from noticing what parts of her body were numb or were in the process of freezing.  
  
"Great Mother, Moon Goddess," she whispered, her breath as cold as the air around her. "This reeks."  
  
The moon's silver-white light continued to serenely bathe the tops of the trees, never reaching the forest floor below ...  
  
Where Sev, wrapped up in several layers of clothes and his threadbare cloak, was pausing to look around. His wand barely illuminated within two feet of its tip; the pitch darkness at the foot of the tallest trees in the forest seemed to eat the light.  
  
It had to be like this, did it not? That she WOULD end up hating him for messing up. Incredible how she was able to stick around for a whole year, though, even over summer. Well, his own bloody fault, wasn't it? And if she wanted to lose him in the Forbidden Forest, then he really should just walk away and leave her alone.  
  
Deep in his gut, he knew he could not walk away. So he continued onward.  
  
----------  
  
Martis had not realized she had dozed off until voices passed below her.  
  
"This is pointless," the Potions Master's voice commented. "We should flush them out."  
  
[Them?]  
  
"How may we flush them out, praytell?" her House Master's voice snorted.  
  
"Shut up, Gallo," Hooch's voice snapped. "It's all your fault, anyway."  
  
"Not again!" McGonagall sighed. "I'm tempted to break you both off and both of you could look for Miss Vox and Mr. Snape on your own."  
  
[Snips is missing, too?]  
  
"Might be better," Penderdandis said. "We're getting nowhere at this rate and it's getting colder. Might trip over their frozen corpses quicker."  
  
SWAT!  
  
"Ow!"  
  
"Let that be a lesson to you," McGonagall replied. "And since it's getting colder, we have to hurry our search - Miss Vox is susceptible to the cold and Mr. Snape is in too poor of health to be wandering the woods ... "  
  
Their voices died off, leaving her in silence.  
  
Martis blinked, her eyes feeling dry. They were not only looking for her, but Sev, too. What was he doing gallavanting in the Forest? Should he not be trying to find ways to get around the Protection Spells with the help of Miss Sonia 'Pretty and Pale' Stellamaris?  
  
Still made her mad.  
  
Well, best to find him and get him indoors. He did not take the cold any better than she did, and he had less of an excuse. Well, maybe not. She hoped he was still all right.  
  
Carefully holding her arms out, she rolled off her branch and caught another. Dropped, then caught two more. Dropped, latched around a branch. Her Quidditch armor and uniform protected her from the scaly branches on her descent down.  
  
She finally reached the last branch and plunged to the dark forest floor.  
  
She landed on a body, both of them yelling, "OW!"  
  
Martis pulled her wand out and said, "Lumos!"  
  
Another lit wand appeared, illuminating the face of Severus Snape, looking harsh and contorted in the dim wand lights.  
  
"Snips?"  
  
"Spirals?"  
  
In unison they said, "WHAT THE HELLS ARE YOU DOING??"  
  
"Me??" Martis snapped. "What about you? Why aren't you trying to molest your hussy?"  
  
"That is no way to talk about Sonia!" Sev answered. "And I was concerned about you is all!"  
  
"Oh, that's all!" she snorted. "Was it after I tried to kill you or after I tried to kill the Keeper?"  
  
"Why were you trying to kill me, anyway?"  
  
"I don't know - maybe because you have lousy tastes in women!"  
  
"This is not the place to discuss this!" Sev retorted. "We have to get back to the castle - "  
  
"I am not going back! YOU can go back! You don't need me anymore, you're perfectly fine on your own!"  
  
"What's that supposed to mean? I'm not leaving here without you!"  
  
"Well, I'm certainly not going back - you go back!"  
  
"I am not! I'm staying right here with you!"  
  
"Fine, be that way." She leaned back against the tree, folding her arms. "We'll both freeze to death, anyway. That'll be lovely, wouldn't it? Daily Prophet, page nine: 'Teenagers Found Dead in Apparent Suicide Pact in Forbidden Forest - says House Master "I always suspected both were incredibly stupid".' Just below that would be the crossword."  
  
"They don't need it - you have enough cross words for a dozen papers."  
  
"Don't cross me, Snape!"  
  
"Then don't be cross with me!"  
  
"Get off your cross, somebody needs the wood!"  
  
They looked at each other ...  
  
Martis whispered, "What ARE we doing??"  
  
"We're making word plays while being mad," Sev answered.  
  
They broke into giggles.  
  
"This is insane," she said. "Of all the things we could have fought about - "  
  
Sev's face became somber again. "I was scared I lost you."  
  
Martis flicked her wand around and pointed it at a small pile of dead wood. "Incendio."  
  
The fire flared up, drying out the wood and burning brightly, offering a little warmth between them. She stared at the flames, then said, "Practice took too much time away from us, didn't it? It was our first game since the beginning of November so we needed to train extra hard. I guess ... I guess you had to find somebody."  
  
He drew his knees up. "I didn't do it intentionally, you know. And she just wanted help in Potions class."  
  
Martis shivered, stretching her numb hands to the fire. "Yeah, I'll bet she wanted her ingredients blended."  
  
Sev looked puzzled for a moment. "That ... that was an innuendo, wasn't it?" He smiled to himself. "I'm getting better at reading women."  
  
She glared at him. "Spotted the Chimaera but got eaten, anyway. Severus, you don't know anything about women - it's a male thing, you'll never understand women as long as you're a guy."  
  
"And you understand guys?"  
  
"What's to understand? You grunt, you laugh at body noises, you play sports, and you go all goofy over some little pale tart with a giggly voice and round heels."  
  
"If you know so much about men ... why am I here?"  
  
Martis opened her mouth ... then shut it and turned away.  
  
"HA!" he said in triumph. "Got you!"  
  
She spun to face him. "Okay, Mister Mysterious Male-Type - why ARE you here?!"  
  
Sev opened his mouth ... then shut it.  
  
"HA!"  
  
He sniffed and put on his 'air-of-haughtiness', learned from Lucius Malfoy. "It's just too subtle for you to comprehend."  
  
Martis barked a laugh. "'Subtle'? Sure, subtle as a sledgehammer through a window. You were feeling guilty about messing around without my permission!"  
  
"Messing around?!" he exclaimed. "How could I mess around?! And why do I need your permission, anyway?!"  
  
"By seeing that Sonia chippie and dragging her off for a quick snog every thirty seconds!"  
  
"I did not snog her!" Sev snorted. "And what am I to think about you and a bunch of sweaty Quidditch players getting all athletic and worked up every day for a month??"  
  
"That's different!"  
  
"How?!"  
  
She waved her arms. "It just IS!"  
  
"I would have thought a witch would have a better understanding of symbols than that."  
  
"COSMOTOLIA!"  
  
She waved her wand at him and turned away as Sev tried to keep his head straight under the four-foot-high column of hair growing out of his head in the style that a future culture would name a 'high-top fade'.  
  
He raised his wand. "COSMOTOLIA!"  
  
Martis' entire torso became ensnared in a beehive hairdo made with ALL of her hair. The Beehive with Legs rolled over and began kicking at him; Sev swung his head around and swatted the mass of ash blonde hair with his own.  
  
The howls of laughter soon overcame them, realizing how incredibly silly their fight looked. Wheezing and coughing, they finally calmed down and became quiet again.  
  
"The hair's warmer like this," she commented.  
  
"Mine's making my head hurt." Sev lay back on the ground, staring up at the dark canopy of trees, the fire distorting the shadows into scarier shapes. "I'm sorry for everything."  
  
"I'm sorry, too. Next time you decide to find a girlfriend, tell me."  
  
"I wasn't looking for a girlfriend."  
  
The beehive sat up. "Would have really replaced me, then?"  
  
"No," he answered seriously. "Never. She's just a study partner. That's all. She's not my best friend."  
  
"Granted. I doubt she could understand the beauty of pranking Sirius Prat and the Maraudettes." A hand reached out from the hair, groping for his hand. "And I won't spend all my time at practice. We won't be pulled apart because of our stupid schedules."  
  
"Right," Sev agreed. "I'm sorry."  
  
"Accepted," she answered. "I'm sorry."  
  
"Accepted."  
  
"I heard our teachers were looking for us - we better find a way to contact them - "  
  
A soft male voice said "Finite Incantium" twice. Sev's hair shrunk back down to his usual shoulder length and Martis' fell out of the beehive. Appearing over a bush was Dumbledore's face, his half-moon glasses reflecting the light from the fire.  
  
"Headmaster!" Martis exclaimed. "How long have you been there?"  
  
"Since you fell out of the tree. I was waiting for you both to work this out before I showed myself."  
  
Sev looked at him in horror, then lowered his face for his hair to curtain it. "You heard everything."  
  
"Nothing that I haven't heard before, I assure you, Severus," Dumbledore answered as he moved to join them at their fire. "Anyway, a barmy old codger like me will probably forget everything in a few minutes. By the way, I sent everyone back after you were found. I figured the whole search party would frighten you both away."  
  
"Probably," Martis admitted as she scooted next to the Headmaster and hugged him around the shoulders. "I don't know what happened ... The whole game thing and being mad ... "  
  
He gently wrapped an arm around her shoulder and motioned for Sev to sit with them. "Slytherin won while you weren't looking. Robert Crays just had a shock is all. And we needed to replace the hoops, anyway. As for the reasons ... I may be an old fool and you won't believe me, but you are not the first, nor will you be the last, set of friends to fight over need for attention and the interference of third-parties. The trick is to learn to balance it out."  
  
Sev settled next to Dumbledore, feeling the old man's energies of Light and serenity fill him. He hesitantly reached over and hugged the Headmaster's waist. "Or realize it snuck up on you and hit you with a sledgehammer."  
  
"A bit of that, too," Dumbledore chuckled. "My children, I'm afraid there's little wisdom I can offer you in this. Just remember to be open and don't jump to conclusions." He hugged them. "You're both frozen! Do you think it's time to go inside yet?"  
  
"Yes," Martis answered. "I can't feel half of my body, anyway."  
  
Sev looked up. "Why haven't we been eaten yet?"  
  
"Thank the Centaurs for that. Despite being wary of humans, they generally protect the students. But don't tell anyone else that." The smile matched the twinkle of mischeif in his eyes. "The Centaurs don't care for wild parties in the Forest."  
  
"I don't care for wild parties in Slytherin House, either," Sev added. "But I have to put up with them."  
  
"It should be over with by now," Martis said. "Miss Price usually gives the warning to quiet down after a few hours."  
  
"Then that settles it," Dumbledore said, picking them up as he stood. "Back to the school, a late supper in my warm office, then off to bed with you. Hot chocolate as soon as we get in."  
  
Both teenagers nodded, hugging the one truly strong male figure in their lives. They put out the fire and began their walk toward Hogwarts when Dumbledore paused, leaning down to pick something up from the ground.  
  
"Goodness, so this is where the Quaffle landed. I wonder if we can patch it up?"  
  
----------  
  
The Rumor Mill tired of the Snips and Spirals Fight and turned its attention to the after-affects of the Slytherin Quidditch Victory Party, which had resulted in ten Protection Spells going off at once as well as the inflatable sheep (which the students were beginning to call 'Lambchop' for some reason) being found in Onslow Daizer's bed, wearing little more than a red wig and a Fez with a propeller on top.  
  
Onslow lost a lot of girlfriends during that weekend.  
  
The Quidditch hoops were on order, to be delivered in time for the next school-wide game. Martis also got a new bat ... only after the rest of the Slytherin Quidditch team demanded she sign her old one so they could put it in the Slytherin trophy room. The Beater bat - cracked down the center and carved with the name 'Backbeat Spirals' - was placed in the Beaters' Pride case.  
  
Monday morning, after Martis had spent the weekend catching up with Sev, she walked down the row between the Slytherin and Ravenclaw tables until she was standing at Sonia Stellamaris' back.  
  
"Excuse me, Stellamaris."  
  
Sonia turned around. Martis noted again how pale the Fourth-Year girl was, with light blonde hair, intense blue eyes, and long EVERYTHING (neck, fingers, legs, etc). The cupid's bow mouth, obviously naturally pink, asked, "Yes, may I help you ... ?"  
  
"Britomartis Vox, Second-Year, Slytherin Beater, friend of Severus Snape."  
  
"Oh, yes. Artemisia's sister. The ... nevermind. Yes?"  
  
Martis leaned close to Sonia's face, her ash blonde hair falling over her shoulders. She peered over her sunglass frames, making sure the girl saw her moss green eyes. "Just so you know ... if you hurt Sev ... I'll kill you dead."  
  
Sonia pursed her lips together, narrowing her eyes. "Are you threatening me?"  
  
"No, just promising." Martis smiled coldly. "By the way, my sisters tell me eveything; have fun in Potions."  
  
Martis left. Sonia turned back around, seeing Artemisia and Adonia smiling sweetly with their 'Yes-We're-Twins-and-We're-Not-Up-to-Anything-At-All- Really-Honest' smiles.  
  
She looked down at her breakfast and lost her appetite.  
  
-End-


End file.
